This would just be convenient. At the moment I7 prints out this:
You can see Door 1 and Door 2 here.
The player can of course type “go through Door 2”. But most players use the directional shortcuts “w” or “se” and so forth. With the current output that’s not possible. I could put it into the description of the room, but that’s also not ideal.
Wouldn’t it be nicer if it were this:
You can see Door 1 to the west and Door 2 to the northeast here.
Is there a way to implement this? Or is it in already and I have just overlooked it?
Rule for printing the name of a door while listing nondescript items:
say "[printed name of item described] to the [direction of item described from location]".
Now that your original question has been answered, let me ask - why not? It’s not only how it’s always been done, it’s the most natural place for them. Even in room descriptions where the last sentences are exclusively dedicated to “North goes to the bedroom and the door to the west leads to the kitchen” it’s still usually a part of the room description. Indeed, if I come across a description like so:
[i]Hallway
You are on a rather dull hallway, and have the nagging suspicion you’ve wandered into a “My Apartment” game. The hallway continues to the south.
You can see a door to the east.[/i]
…in my mind, the last line would be part of the description. Inform 7 is geared mostly this way anyway, which is why doors are “between” rooms (as well as being part of both).
That said - I’m not telling you not to do it. I’m just surprised that you’d describe using the room description as “not ideal” when it’s been the standard for so long.
Wow. Thanks. I didn’t know that it could be done like this. Thank you!
To answer the following post:
Well, I have always been a friend of challenging tradition. You make a compelling argument. I think the ideal case lies somewhere in the middle between our opinions. In many rooms the doors indeed should go into the description, because such descriptions are more… personal, more varying. Yet in my case I have a rather lengthy corridor which is split into several segments. Nobody will care about reading my detailed description of standard doors. In this case I would just appreciate if I7 would do the typing for me. Call it laziness, call it effectiveness, call it a safety measure (if I forget to describe a door).
So usually I like to describe doors too, but then there are those cases…
If you want the door integrated into the room description, you make it scenery, and then it won’t get a separate “you see” line.
If you want the door separated out (thus, not scenery), you may want a “writing a paragraph about” rule so that you can customize it a little more anyway. But this works for a base case.
You make a compelling argument. I think the ideal case lies somewhere in the middle between our opinions. In many rooms the doors indeed should go into the description, because such descriptions are more… personal, more varying. Yet in my case I have a rather lengthy corridor which is split into several segments. Nobody will care about reading my detailed description of standard doors. In this case I would just appreciate if I7 would do the typing for me. Call it laziness, call it effectiveness, call it a safety measure (if I forget to describe a door).